Synopsis

An odd assortment of animals from the New York Zoo -- including a lion, a giraffe, an anaconda, a koala, and a squirrel -- discover what a jungle the city can be when one of their own is mistakenly shipped to the wild and they embark on a dangerous mission to rescue him.

While three of the top five renters this week were new releases, none of them did particularly well. Leading the way was The Lake House with $7.92 million, which is merely adequate given the film's theatrical run.
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The rental chart was not overburdened by numerous new releases, however, the top two DVDs were both new to the charts. Leading the way was Lucky Number Slevin at $7.37 million, which is a good start given its theatrical run.
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Another busy week, but without much in the way of first run releases. There were a couple of limited releases that looking intriguing, and some special editions worth the upgrade, but in the end there were only two real contenders for DVD Pick of the Week: The Office - The Complete Second Season - Buy from Amazon and Smallville - The Complete Fifth Season - Buy from Amazon.
In a photo finish, Smallville - The Complete Fifth Season - Buy from Amazon won out, but this was partially because no matter how good The Office is, it's not as good as the original.
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The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift started its international run last weekend but missed the top five with $7.93 million on 810 screens in 8 markets. The film took first place in five markets, including the U.K. with $3.35 million on 415 screens, in Australia with $2.28 million on 221 screens, and New Zealand with $444,000 on 53 screens. This is inline with what the original opened with in those markets, but with shorter legs due to Sequelitis it won't have as high a final box office.
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Trick 2 opened in its native Japan finishing in a close second with $3.83 million on 282 screens. That was enough for sixth place on the overall charts and the best per screen average in the top 30.
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The final weekend before the start of World Cup saw Volver become the latest best of the rest finishing sixth with $4.46 million on 863 screens in 5 markets for a total of $27.25 million. The film was again led by its performance in France where it grew for the second week in a row up 14% to $3.02 million on 404 screens for a total of $9.09 million while in Italy it grew by 28% to $1.44 million on 268 screens for a total of $5.61 million after three weeks. In both of those markets the film is on pace to top such worldwide blockbusters as Mission: Impossible 3, something nobody would have predicted before the start of the summer. Even more impressively, it is about a week away from France becoming the film's most lucrative market topping the $11.94 million it made in its native Spain.
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The one major change from the studio estimates was in fourth place as the Spanish film, Volver, grew by 15% to $4.55 million on 835 screens in 5 markets for a total of $21.33 million. The big surprise came in France where the film was up a massive 41% from its opened taking in $2.64 million on 333 screens for a two-week total of $5.53 million. Meanwhile, in Italy is was down a mere 16% to $1.11 million on 309 screens for a total of $3.30 million.
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Mission: Impossible 3 was knocked out of first place by The Da Vinci Code, but that was not a surprise to anyone. What was a surprise is the lack of staying power Mission: Impossible 3 has exhibited so far; this week the film fell a further 43% o $23.22 million on 6392 screens in 57 markets for a total of $164.32 million. Its best market of the weekend was the U.K. where it added $3.44 million on 445 screens to its total of $23.70 million. However, South Korea is close behind with $3.19 million on 330 screens for a total of $23.22 million. The film only as a few openings left and Japan is the only major player out there so unless a minor miracle happens Mission: Impossible 3 won't reach the heights that its predecessors did.
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Silent Hill's weekend numbers were better than earlier estimates and that helped place the film fourth overall with $4.99 million on 1398 screens in 11 markets. The film finished first in Russia with $1.45 million on 213 screens over the weekend and $1.61 million in total while it had to settle for second in Germany with $1.10 million on 308 screens. It also opened in second place in Hong Kong with $462,000 on 34 screens and $580,000 including the previews mentioned last week. So far the film has earned $18.92 million at the international box office, the largest single chunk coming from the U.K.; in that market the film has made $6.32 million including $439,000 on 285 screens this week.
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With Mission: Impossible 3 dominating the international charts, most films saw a serious drop-off and those that didn't were able to climb the charts, or at least remain stable. For instance, Eight Below fell 27% to $3.67 million on 1951 screens in 27 markets, but despite there being two new releases in the top five, it was able to remain in sixth place on the overall charts. The film was not able to crack $1 million in any single market, but did perform well in Spain with $587,000 on 225 screens and that lifted its total box office to $2.15 million in the market, $30.35 million internationally, and $111.42 million worldwide.
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A pair of openings in major markets helped Eight Below climb a spot to sixth with $5.05 million on 2129 screens in 24 markets for a total of $24.26 million so far. The film opened in France but could only manage sixth place with $1.85 million on 473 screens while in Spain it opened in first place, but only managed $981,000 on 224 screens. In the meantime, the film dipped just 4% during its second weekend in Australia adding $769,000 on 258 screens to its total of $2.29 million there.
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The Wild added a few more markets but still fell out of the top five down 54% to $4.37 million on 2868 screens in 27 markets for a two week total of $17.77 million. Its best market was Spain where the film was down just 43% to $875,000 on 382 screens over the weekend and $3.49 million in total. It had a hard time in family friendly Mexico where it was down 59% to $702,000 on 501 screens over the weekend and $3.60 million in total while in Italy it plummeted an unheard of 84% to just $216,000 on 343 screen for a two-week total of $2.75 million.
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It was a mixed week with the total box office hitting just $110 million, down 9.0% from last week.
On the other hand, that was up an impressive 17.4% from the same weekend last year and year-to-date 2006 is now leading 2005 by 4%.
On an interesting side note, of the three new releases, the film that earned the worst reviews earned the best box office while the film that earned the of best reviews earned the weakest box office.
Further proof that high quality is detrimental to a film's box office potential.
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Ice Age: The Meltdown added another $60.34 million on 8303 screens in 57 markets for a total of $263.19 million in internationally and $410.42 million worldwide as of Monday. This means it took less than three weeks for the film to top the original's totals on both the international and worldwide box office, and that's with three more major markets left to open in, (South Korea, Italy, and Japan). The film added a dozen markets this weekend, but most of those were smaller in nature but did include $829,000 on 45 screens in Hong Kong and $516,000 on 110 in Thailand. Holdovers include an outstanding $12.37 million on 1111 screens in Germany for a two-week total of $37.07 million there while in the U.K. it added $6.40 million on 503 screens to its total of $34.58 million in the market. It was even more impressive in Mexico given the relative size of the market, it remained in first place for the third weekend in a row with $2.54 million on 912 screens for a $24.72 million total. On the other hand, the film fell 60% during the weekend in Russia falling out of first place with $1.35 million on 397 screens for a three-week total of $15.92 million.
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It was a great weekend at the box office, with the box office growing and records falling.
The total box office rose 4.4% to just shy of $120 million, which was $43.7% higher than last year.
In fact, the week's number one film earned nearly half of what the total box office brought in this time last year.
With two weeks of incredible year-to-year growth, 2006 has pulled ahead of 2005 by 4%, but remember, this time last year was the weakest part of the entire year, so don't celebrate prematurely.
If 2006 can keep the growth up even when it goes against Revenge of the Sith, that's when we celebrate.
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We should have a new winner atop the box office this Easter weekend with two new films opening wide.
Strangely, it is not the digitally animated film from Disney that is leading the charge to the top.
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Back to normal levels of traffic on this list, but like last week there's not an over abundance of huge sites on this week's list. I hope that changes soon as the summer box office season is just around the corner. The best of the bunch this week is Hard Candy - Official Site, which has been slowly growing for months.
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It's a much busier week this week including several sites that I found through e-mails. Thanks for the tips. (On a side note, if you sent me an e-mail regarding a movie site and I forgot it, please send it again. It was a big list this week and I'm almost positive one or two sites slipped between the cracks.) Unfortunately, while there are plenty of sites on this week's list, there's not a lot of top notch ones. The movie on this list that made me the most excited was The Simpsons Movie, and that one doesn't even have an official movie site, just the teaser trailer.
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March wasn't as strong as expected and April doesn't seem to have what it takes to turn things around. IMDb has a poll they run every month on what film you are looking forward to the most. This time the number one film is Silent Hill was in first with 16.5% of the vote. Number two went to 'Other' at 13.0% of the vote. This is a really, really bad sign. With no advanced buzz, many films will have a hard time attracting an audience, which not only means less people are seeing the movies, but also less people are seeing the trailers for the big summer releases, which means less buzz about the summer releases... On the other hand, there are several limited releases that look promising including Friends with Money, Hard Candy, The Notorious Bettie Page, and Kinky Boots. Unfortunately, all but the first are being released on April 14th.
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During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. It's busier on this week's list than it has in a while, but there was only one site that was in contention to win the award, Underworld: Evolution - Official Site.
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